Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

Malcolm Turnbull rejects call for citizenship audit

Malcolm Turnbull has rejected calls for a citizenship audit of MPs, saying only the High Court has the power to determine who is eligible for parliament.

The prime minister said there was no place in Australia for "witch hunts", taking aim at critics of Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg over whether he held Hungarian dual citizenship through his mother.

"Has this witch-hunt become so absurd that people are seriously claiming that Josh Frydenberg is the citizen of a country which has stripped his mother and her family of their citizenship and would have pushed them into the gas chambers had it not been that the war was ended before they had time to do so?"Mr Turnbull asked reporters in Perth on Friday.

The document Josh Frydenberg claims is proof he is not a dual citizen.

"If a senator or member believes that one of their colleagues is not eligible to sit on the House or the Senate, they can stand up and seek leave to move a motion to refer them to the High Court and they can state the case and present the facts," Mr Turnbull said.

"We are not going to engage in some kind of national witch-hunt. We are nation governed by the rule of law. The burden of proof is on the accusers and if anybody believes there are members of the House or the Senate are not eligible, let them state their case, let them state their case."

Mr Turnbull was firm on rejecting calls for an audit.

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"Are we saying that we would propose to have somebody interrogate each and every member and Senator, examine their geniality, seek to uncover facts about their parentage that may not even be known to the member or Senator and then put them
to the obligation of establishing what foreign laws may be? In some cases of enormous complexity.

"Are we really going to say that burden of proof is now going to be imposed on every single amber and Senator for that type of interrogation?
"The High Court has clarified in respect to dual citizenship and it is at the senators and members to satisfy themselves that they are in complaint.

"If they feel they are not then they have an obligation to say so and make sure that their cases referred to the High Court and as I said if other members and senators believe one of their colleagues is not conforming or complying with the constitution, then they have the ability to stand up and move that somebody be referred to the High Court."

Mr Turnbull claimed an audit would not "resolve" the matter as the High Court is the only place that can make a ruling on such issues as dual citizenship.
"The fact is the only place that these issues can be dealt with authoritatively is the High Court of Australia," he said.

"Each house has the ability to refer people to the High Court and of course that has happened and it can happen in the future. If people conclude that they are not in compliance of the constitution or others allege that colleagues are not in compliance then that is the law.

"We must not allow ourselves to be dragged into a sort of lynch mob, witch-hunt, trial by innuendo and denunciation.

"There is an established process here, there is a court, the highest in the land, that has the constitutional authority to deal with it and the
Parliament has the ability to make references to it."